NASA should sideline plans to return astronauts to the moon and attempt to
land a rocket on an asteroid instead, a special independent panel has told
the White House.

Under current plans, NASA has picked the wrong destination with the wrong rocket, the panel's chairman said.

A test-flight version of the rocket, the new Ares I, is on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, awaiting liftoff later this month for its first experimental flight.

Instead, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should be concentrating on bigger rockets and new places to explore, the panel members said, as they issued their final 155-page report.

The committee, created by the White House in May to look at NASA's troubled exploration, shuttle and space station programs, issued a summary of their findings last month, mostly urging more spending on space.

Norman Augistine, panel Chairman, said that it makes more sense to put astronauts on a nearby asteroid or one of the moons of Mars.